CIGS thin-film start-up Siva Power has recently raised a total of US$10 million to fund its build of what it claims is the world’s highest capacity co-evaporation source, the key tool for its claimed ultra-low cost CIGS modules.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative is providing CIGS thin-film start-up Siva Power with US$3 million in funding as part of the program to bring novel and highly innovative ideas to commercialisation.

Organisers of the 31st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) have set deadlines for paper abstract submissions for the event being held in mid-September at the CCH - Congress Center Hamburg, in Hamburg, Germany.

Dieter Manz, founder of equipment supplier Manz AG, claims that crystalline technology will “lose out” to thin-film as the global solar market grows and gears itself up to much larger scales of production.

High-tech manufacturing equipment firm, Manz AG reported record revenue for the first nine months of 2014, driven by its Flat Panel Display segment, which generated €179.9 million from the total revenue of €250.9 million.

During the opening conference sessions to The 29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC 2014) in Amsterdam this year, the call to arms from leading European PV protagonists was for the sector to embrace the energy transformation that could require one trillion euros to achieve.

Solar Frontier has announced its second quarter financial results, reporting a year-on-year improvement in ordinary profit and reduction in production costs, while parent company Showa Shell has approved a plan for the two entities to split.

Work continues apace on the new factory that will serve as a “blueprint” for the future plans of Japanese thin-film module manufacturer Solar Frontier, with the company confirming to PV Tech that it will target a cell efficiency of 15% on its production lines.

Flexible CIGS thin-film producer, Ascent Solar is collaborating with NASA through its Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) programme to develop low-cost lightweight large area solar arrays for a range of space applications in the future.

PV equipment specialist, Singulus Technologies has received an order said to be over €15 million (US$20.4 million) for a CIGS thin-film wet-chemical coating processing tool from an unidentified customer in China.

CIGS thin-film maker Siva Power has received the initial portion of an anticipated US$15 million in investment, which the company said it intends to put towards scaling up its production facilities to gigawatt production capacity.

Hanergy Global Solar Power & Applications Group, a subsidiary of Hanergy Solar Group Limited, has signed a strategic partnership framework with Sojitz Machinery Corporation – one of the largest trading corporations in Japan.

Taiwan-based CIGS thin-film producer, TSMC Solar has attracted Dr. Rommel Noufi, a leading CIGS technologist and pioneer at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to consult with the company on future R&D activities.

Major CIS thin-film producer, Solar Frontier, is considering establishing a production plant in Buffalo, New York after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the State University of New York College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY CNSE).

Thin-film producer, Solar Frontier has produced a CIS solar cell with a record conversion efficiency of 20.9% at the Atsugi Research Center, Japan in collaboration with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

US-based CIGS thin-film developer, Stion, has claimed a prototype CIGS cell (20 cm x 20 cm) has achieved a 23.2% conversion efficiency using scalable commercial processes. The company did not disclose if the module results had been independently verified.

In a strategic move ahead of possible new anti-dumping duties being imposed on c-Si PV manufacturers in China and Taiwan, CIGS thin-film producer, TSMC Solar has selected Centrosolar America as its exclusive distributor in North America.

Looking back, 2014 was a year of convalescence for a PV industry still battered and bruised from a period of ferocious competition. End-market demand continued apace, with analysts towards the end of 2014 predicting the year would see between around 45 and 50GW of deployment. That has begun to feed through to the supplier end of the market, with all the main manufacturers announcing capacity expansions in 2015 and further ahead.

Although the past few years have proved extremely testing for PV equipment manufacturers, falling module prices have driven solar end-market demand to previously unseen levels. That demand is now starting to be felt by manufacturers, to the extent that leading companies are starting to talk about serious capacity expansions later this year and into 2015. This means that the next 12 months will be a critical period if companies throughout the supply chain are to take full advantage of the PV industry’s next growth phase.